When his younger sister is propositioned by the Tyrant King, Aster steps in to take her place. Just when he fears he must face this fate alone, the King assigns Rowan the Black to protect him—an Enforcer Knight with a tortured past. Despite his cruel reputation, Aster can't shake the feeling that Rowan is familiar to him. Haunted by memories of his lost childhood sweetheart, Jace, Aster must now navigate a veritable political chess game he wasn't at all prepared for. 

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“Flowers like the rose are needed for so many reasons,” Aster said. “The ground needs their roots, bees need their pollen, and animals need their leaves. So they do what they can to survive, by any means necessary. Does that mean a rose is evil for growing thorns?” He looked up at Rowan.

Rowan kept his eyes on the rose. He didn’t seem convinced. “A single rose has never caused as much pain as I have, Aster.”

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Broken Vows is created by Alex Agar, an EGlobal Creative Publishing signed author. 

BRoken Vows

So the day came. Aster had barely slept the night before, and his stomach remained tied in one tight, messy, quivering knot. He sat beside the windows in his bedroom, his nightclothes hanging carelessly off his body and his knees hugged tightly to his chest. A tray of uneaten breakfast food lay forgotten on the floor a few feet away, and blue eyes squinted blankly out the window through unkempt black waves.


He could just barely see the crowds gathered just outside the castle gates. From this angle, he couldn’t see the executioner’s platform, nor could he see the poor prisoners likely being dragged on a walk of shame through the streets as the crowds shouted abuse or threw rotten food at them. He might have seen it all better from his balcony, but he did not want to hear the screaming. Not when he couldn’t do a single thing to help those poor men. 


Chapter 25: Tunnels